Seeding Opportunity and Freedom at Farmers Markets
July 21st, 2022
[Read time: 5 minutes]
Around a year ago, KTA Farm Business Advisor Tania Zuñiga set out to address the gap she had observed in small farmers' access to farmers markets. For beginning farmers, diversification of market streams can be key to achieving financial success, but often difficult to implement. In a post-pandemic shutdown landscape, Tania noticed that farmers were more curious to seek out new sales opportunities and connect with communities – particularly, she noted that farmers were wanting to pursue farmers markets. However, farmers markets can have unique and large barriers to entry. Small farmers can be unsure where to begin, lacking crucial government resources, relevant community connections, capital for start-up costs, and the time to invest in a new market stream. If these initial obstacles can be overcome, farmers can then wait months or even years to secure a spot in a market, if there are even enough spots to accommodate them in the first place.
Together with the Agricultural Institute of Marin (AIM), Manuel Cervantes from the Agriculture and Land-Based Training Association (ALBA), Central Coast Farm Business Advisor Favio Ortiz and Regional Coordinator Erika Vargas, Tania co-launched a cross-organizational farmers market incubator program supporting a total of 27 ALBA farmers and KTA clients over the next three years to help them explore and expand into farmers market channels. The program creates an opportunity for these farms to sell at three of AIM’s farmers markets over the course of a year, with participants rotating through each location every three months so they can cultivate and deepen customer relationships within different communities while providing a broader selection of healthy, culturally relevant food to consumers. From KTA’s client community, Anna’s Organic Farm, Narci Organic Farms, Solorio’s Organic Farm, Oaxax Organics, Coronel Produce Organic Farm, and Mimi’s Organic Farm will be selling at AIM’s Hayward, Clement St., and Oakland farmers markets. These participants are all BIPOC, first-generation farmers who have traditionally lacked access to direct-to-consumer market streams, with this incubator being their first opportunity to connect with and sell to these communities.
“Para mí principalmente significa libertad, pues yo he trabajado de mayoreo entonces ahora voy a tener una nueva forma de comercializar mis productos. Voy a poder hacer sustentable mi empresa y el ver a las personas que se van a llevar mis productos que yo he construido con esfuerzo, entonces, es algo personal, satisfactorio para mí.”
— Adelio Coronel, Coronel Produce Organic Farm
Program orientation facilitated by AIM, ALBA, and KTA.
Each partner organization has played a key role in cultivating these market experiences for the farmers. To address historic barriers to entry, establish additional income streams for the farms, and ensure farmers can focus on the benefits of market participation, costs such as farmers market fees, travel expenses, booth materials, and stipends are covered by a grant from the Stupski Foundation. Alongside pursuing and securing the funding opportunity from Stupski, AIM has overseen logistics to welcome incubator participants at markets. ALBA hosted educational sessions for the farmers at its site in Salinas, with Manuel Cervantes focusing on compliance in addition to presenting topics on market strategies, logistical management, and community engagement in partnership with KTA.
Collaboration extended beyond partners and into the group of participants; each participant was able to share their own knowledge and wisdom to create a sense of collective empowerment and solidarity. Having worked for larger agricultural operations at farmers markets since they were young, participants Everado and Roberto of Solorio’s Organic Farm provided their peers with insight into booth displays, market pricing and customer service. Maria Ana Reyes from Narci Organics shared her experience in the craft of growing a diversity of crops and juggling various sales channels while Anna Torres from Anna’s Organics offered her perspective on managing larger operations and implementing Integrated Pest Management in her production. Domitila Tapia of Mimi’s Organics lent her entrepreneurial skills to the group, highlighting her path to accessing capital.
“Sería lo máximo ir a esos mercados, conocer nuevas gentes, lo que consumen y tener un paso directo al consumidor. Esperamos conocer más gente [y los] diferente[s] gusto de comida y todo.”
—Roberto Gaytan, Oaxax Organics
Rotating across the three markets, the hope is that years of experience working within various farmers markets can be compressed as incubator participants engage with different customer bases, market types and each other. The combination of these various facets of the experience is intended to open up the opportunity for farmers to explore long-term participation in these markets beyond the end of the incubator, building on the momentum they seed in the next few months to foster embedded relationships with these communities.
On July 30th and 31st, the first nine participants in the farmers market incubator will begin selling at AIM’s Hayward, Clement St., and Oakland farmers markets. We invite you to head to these markets and shop with Anna’s Organic Farm, Narci Organic Farms, Solorio’s Organic Farm, Coronel Produce Organic Farm, Oaxax Organics, and Mimi’s Organic Farm at the AIM-ALBA-KTA farmers market booth (more info on market times and locations are available in our Love Local Guide). The impact of supporting these farms goes beyond connecting with the nourishing foods they grow – you’ll also be contributing to the economic viability of their businesses and supporting a shift towards greater farmer access across farmers markets.
Note:
As of Fall 2023, the new cohort of farmers market incubator participants will begin selling across the Hayward, Clement St., and Oakland farmers markets. KTA clients include:
Vásquez Organic Farms, Emiliano Gómez Vásquez
Salazar Organic Farm, Alejandro Salazar
Coyo Orgánico Farm, Carlos Daniel De Jesús
Induchucuiti Organic Farm, Celsa Ortega
We invite you to meet and support this new cohort of farmer participants and their businesses!
KTA is grateful to ALBA and AIM for their ongoing collaboration on this and other projects. Within KTA, the farmers market incubator is part of regional Ecosystem Building work led by our Central Coast team. A more recently launched programmatic area for KTA, Ecosystem Building focuses on building a friendlier marketplace that removes barriers and friction points around land, capital, and markets for small-scale farmers and ranchers.
Transcription Credits: Hilda Moreno Bonilla
Photo Credits: Tania Zuñiga